From Pine View Farm

Too Venal for Words category archive

Vaccine Nation 0

In an article at the Washington Monthly, Bill Scher admits that he is less than sanguine about the Republican Party’s decision to abandon medical science. Here’s a tiny bit of his article (emphasis added):

Trump’s ability to escape lasting blame for his disastrous pandemic response has led Republicans to make quackery a pillar of the party. Support for childhood vaccination among Republicans has plummeted, which helps explain why a measles outbreak in rural Texas has already killed one child. Across the country, GOP lawmakers have enacted a raft of legislation weakening vaccine mandates. And, of course, Trump and nearly every Senate Republican placed the nation’s most significant source of public health misinformation at the head of the Department of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Fears that the Kennedy appointment will lead to dire public health consequences ratcheted up this week with the abrupt cancellation of an annual Food and Drug Administration meeting necessary to select strains for the next flu season vaccine.

Sabotaging the flu vaccine will kill people.

(Broken link fixed.)

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Azadeh Aalai looks at how the internet, and particularly “social” media, has empowered scams and scammers. She focuses on the career of Belle Gibson, the subject of two recent documentaries.

Aalai points out that

It isn’t that con artists or scammers didn’t exist prior to the internet age, but, today, the reach and scope of such bad faith actors is so much wider. . . . . Unfortunately, when consumers are lacking in media literacy and/or vulnerable, they are prime targets for such predators.

Follow the link for the rest, and, remember, just because you read it on a screen, it ain’t necessarily so.

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DOGE Bull 0

Evidence mounts that Elon Musk’s DOGE has no idea how government works, it also doesn’t know what it’s doing.

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Extra-Special Bonus QOTD 0

California State Sen. Scott Wiener, reacting to Donald Trump’s attempt to defund the Presidio Trust, which oversees the Presidio Park in San Francisco:

Trump . . . can’t tolerate success if it doesn’t benefit him personally.

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The Other Plucker 0

Frame One, captioned

Click to view the original image.

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This New Gilded Age (Updated) 0

Elon Musk standing in front of a pile of moneybags labeled

Click for the original image.

Addendum:

Per Balloon Juice, Mike Lucovich is now banned from Xitter because of this cartoon.

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It Can Happen Here 0

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School, argues that it is, indeed, already happening here.

He notes that

If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration. For my book “No Democracy Lasts Forever,” I studied how democracies die and are replaced by authoritarian regimes. Almost always the rulers are elected rather than coming to power through a coup, and then they consolidate authority and silence their critics.

He goes on to list several specific indicators that we are seeing this process right here right now right before our eyes.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Trudy Rubin hears a rhyme.

It must be free verse, as somehow “Donald Trump” manages to rhyme with “Neville Chamberlain.”

_________________

*Mark Twain.

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Parental Frights 0

Florida Man.

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Fly the Fiendly Skies 0

They get fiendlier every day.

We are a broken society.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Echoes of Immorality 0

For some fool reason, this article seems to remind me of someone in the news.

I wonder just who it could be?

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The Unelected Co-Conspirator, Reprise 0

Thom Hartmann talks with Representative Mark Pocan about possible motivations for Elon Musk’s recent DOGEy actions.

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Vaccine Nation 0

At the confirmation hearings for RFK Jr., Senators Measles, Polio, Smallpox and Disinformation all vote

Click for the original image.

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A Tune for the Times 0

A short tune about Donald Trump’s reaction to the Washington–I refuse to call it “Reagan”–National Airport crash.

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The Crypto Con 0

Jacob Silverman talks with Sam and Emma about the growing threat of greater US government involvement in crypto, with state and local governments pondering active investments in the scam-centric industry, and how a Trump presidency will likely expedite that.

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A BLT on Wry 0

At NJ.com, Roy Lehman makes a strong case that the successor to DEI will be BLT. He picks as an one example our (shiver) new Secretary of Defense. Here’s a bit:

Instead of DEI-based vetting, Trump has installed a new system, the “BLT” hiring guide. BLT, in this case, stands for bootlicker, lackey and toady. Under the old guidelines, our new defense secretary would be qualified only if the definition of DEI were drunkenness, egotism and ignorance.

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The Crypto Con 0

Everyone’s getting into the act.

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Know Them by the Company They Keep 0

As cynical as I have become been made, I must admit that this rather takes me aback.

I expect that my father, who was in the Ardennes, would be appalled.

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Where Is She Now? 0

Florida Man wanted to know.

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